RIP Frank Buckles

I can understand that, but I do think there's a symbolism worth noting at a higher level than the death of another veteran (and when the last of the two remaining veterans in the world pass on).

Soon -- probably not this year or next, but relatively soon -- we'll lose our last living direct links to the 1800s. This website says there's only 56 verified living people in the world born before 1900, including 14 in the United States. Oddly, both the oldest woman and man on Earth are Americans, both 114.

 

And has now also died.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13289607

 

This one's for Claude, Frank, and the rest of the WWI vets, including both my grandfathers, Ray and Charlie (who I never met):

"And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all."

That day is today.

 

Nice. My great grandfather, who died in 1978 (when I was 5), was also a WWI vet.

And that song reminds me that anyone who is interested in what the WWI combat experience was like should go watch "Gallipoli." Now.

 

Hopefully his sendoff won't be the debacle Buckles was.